Dancing Queen
by Five Minutes Til Bedtime
Summary: For a long time Kurt keeps his dancing a secret. Then, one day, he doesn't. One-shot.


Title: **Dancing Queen**

Summary: For a long time Kurt keeps his dancing a secret. Then, one day, he doesn't. One-shot.

Fandom: Glee

Word Count: 907

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><p>The first time it happens Kurt doesn't think much of it.<p>

After all, they're always doing big group dances and no one but Finn and Rachel ever really get to break from the herd. When Mr. Schue singles out Mike and Brittany to do a little freestyle dance during the performance it doesn't bother him. Kurt would be the first to say that Mike and Brittany are amazing dancers and deserve a spot to shine given that their voices are mostly overshadowed by the heavy hitters of Rachel, Mercedes, and (when Mr. Schue allows) himself.

So when Kurt his sent to the back of the group to twirl around a girl he has no interest in while Mike and Brittany take the spot light its fine. He doesn't think anything of it.

The second time it happens, he berated himself for not speaking up.

It's another group performance and this time Mr. Schue doesn't even need to single them out, Mike and Brittany just automatically get up and dance. While the other's sway on the side lines with awe in their eyes, Kurt looks on at the turns and leaps and thinks – well, it isn't as if I've shown them what I can do. Really, it's my fault for not saying something.

He stands by and messes around; throwing in the moves he usually saves for his happy dances at the mall. Just a little hand movements, bobbing shoulders, and a hint of a sway.

He watches Mike and Brittany and imagines himself by their side.

The third time it happens, and the fourth, and the fifth, Kurt begins to see a pattern. Mike and Brittany are the dancers. Kurt is not. He doesn't know why he is surprised. He doesn't know why he can't bring himself to move his body like he _knows _he can.

Something is stopping him. A small part of his mind that is wary of what his gleemates might think – whether they would think that he was a liar like when he claimed to be able to hit that high F and blew it on purpose. He's afraid that Rachel might take it as a challenge and start to demand dance solos as well – her and her pagent style dance lessons she took when she was five. It would ruin everything.

He keeps still. He resigns himself that he will not dance in glee, only in his studio where he works himself to the bone every night after glee, tossing his body around the floor as though the sheer force of his movements would bless his body with wings.

Mike knows – he's taken several classes with Kurt before – and Tina suspects. Brittany sometimes frowns at him when she's moving, looking at him with a confused expression that wonders why he isn't there beside her. He doesn't know why they don't say anything. Part of him is thankful, the other wishes they would just speak up.

He is nervous when the big wedding rolls around. The prospect of teaching both his father and Finn how to dance is both thrilling and terrible. He sees Finn's distrustful eyes on him – he doesn't think Kurt can do it. He doesn't _want _Kurt to do it. He flinches when Kurt tries to touch him.

And then there is Karofsky and the kiss and the that follows it.

It isn't until might later, when he is watching the Warblers walk around in their tidy little rows that he thinks on it – allows himself to wonder what might've happened if he _had _been able to show Finn what he could do. He thinks that something big might've shifted. Or maybe nothing at all.

Kurt doesn't like the Warblers. He tries to, pretends to, but deep inside he can't stand being a part of them. The Warblers are like a box in which only certain things are allowed to go inside. He hates their stuffy councils trying to pretend they're not a bunch of teenage boys like everyone else and their rigid, unsmiling faces. Forget Vocal Adrenaline, the Warblers are the true soulless automatons. They just have no soul.

Returning to McKinley is like breathing air for the first time in years. He breathes it in deep, clears his lungs of the lingering dust, and belts out emotion. He doesn't dance – not really – not yet. But he's biting at the bit.

For a week he is riding on a cloud.

Then there comes the final straw – Booty Camp. Dance camp.

Some people are exempt. Kurt is not. It does not compute.

He realized for the first time just how much he's messed up. He gets angry.

He can feel Mike and Brittany's eyes flash to him. He stands up and, without saying a word, takes over the choir room floor.

Cue to Brad. He knows exactly what to do – he's played for Kurt before at competitions – competitions Kurt _won._

Kurt moves. He doesn't think – doesn't need to. His body has been waiting for this for so long it practically fights him to loose control. He can't feel his feet touch the ground – can't feel anything but the beat and his body.

He finishes big. A kick, jump, turn, and finally a flip. He lands it with the last note and doesn't waver. Perfect.

The eyes of his gleemates are upon him. Awe, approval, shock, all mixed into one.

Kurt turns to Mr. Schue.

"Didn't you know? I dance."


End file.
